


Jiminy's Discovery

by Cait_Sidhe



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Bad Decisions, Crack Treated Seriously, Dialogue Heavy, Eavesdropping, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Land of Departure (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), POV Jiminy Cricket, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Secrets, Stalking, but everyone survived, but not actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Jiminy Cricket overhears Ventus and Sora discussing sneaking to somewhere else when they told everyone they'd be going to Twilight Town. As someone with the role of conscience, Jiminy decides to take it upon himself to follow the two, discovering something that he immediately reports to the Masters. But is Jiminy correct in his interpretation of what happened, or is there something else going on?
Kudos: 12





	Jiminy's Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a fun little thing I threw together. Writing from Jiminy's POV was an adventure! It's short, only covering the part where Jiminy sneaks off to follow them and then skipping to them returning. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> The Soriku is very minor, only really one line in passing about a kiss goodbye. So even if you don't ship it you should be fine reading this.

Jiminy Cricket had been minding his own business—he really had been!—when he overheard two of the young keyblade wielders talking in whispers in the corner of the library, looking like they were trying to hide. Did they have secrets? Well, that wasn’t good! Secrets always caused problems, in Jiminy’s opinion. Sora himself had kept a big one, as Riku had discovered shortly after the war in one of Sora’s nightmares. Thankfully Kairi had a kupo coin, or Sora might have tried misusing the power of waking a second time, which could have had dire consequences! By some miracle, everyone had emerged safe from the war, but that showed just how close it had been. Now all the young wielders were training in various places.

So, in the interest of safety—not curiosity!—Jiminy decided to take a small listen. Besides, Jiminy had the very important role of conscience, which he took seriously; if the young keyblade wielders were planning something ill-advised, it fell upon him to talk some sense into them.

“Okay, so first we have to head in the direction of Twilight Town, because I told Riku we were going there to visit Roxas and Xion like usual and he’ll probably be at the ship to kiss me goodbye,” Sora told Ventus. Ah, yes, the two had decided to attend school there.

“Seriously? That’s the opposite direction from the Land of Departure!” Ventus complained. He, Sora, and most of the other young wielders were staying there.

“Well, what did you want me to say? He always tries going with me if I leave for anywhere else while he’s around!”

“Then wait until he leaves on a mission again,” Ventus reasoned. Riku, being a Master, was often sent places in lieu of doing the more simple training the non-Master wielders had. But why wouldn’t the two want Riku—or anyone—knowing where they were truly going?

“I don’t think I can; seriously, you must be feeling it too, Ven.”

Ventus sighed. “Yeah, that’s true. Man, it’s such a nuisance that we have to go so often!”

Sora scoffed. “Well, you’re the one who drank it.” Huh? Drank what? Go where? Jiminy wished they’d be more specific.

“You did too,” Ventus pointed out.

“Well, you did it first.”

“At your suggestion!” Ventus protested, then sighed in resignation. “Well, it is what it is. Let’s go, then,” Ventus said, turning to leave.

“Right,” Sora agreed, and the two began walking towards the exit.

So they were sneaking off to somewhere mysterious, were they? Well, that was certainly suspect! Jiminy decided he better follow the boys… in the interest of safety, of course. Not curiosity.

***

Sora and Ventus returned to the Land of Departure the next day. Jiminy was hiding in Sora’s hood—thankfully he hadn’t been discovered—and was very nervous. He had to get away without being noticed so he could report this shocking development to one of the Masters; they would know what to do, as this required more than a simple talking-to.

Suddenly, the two halted; Jiminy peeked out of the hood to see why: Riku had appeared, rushing out the door before Ventus and Sora could get inside and immediately pulling Sora into a crushing bear hug.

“Where were you two!?” the silverette demanded as he backed up. “You said you’d only be gone for the day, not overnight—and when I called your phone, Sora, there was no answer! Same for you, Ven!”

“Oh. Well, I left it here,” Sora admitted.

“And I lost mine last week,” Ventus informed the silverette. Jiminy tried not to sigh; those boys were always misplacing things. Jiminy should speak to them about staying properly organized.

“Yeah, I figured that was the case,” Riku acknowledged. “So then I called Roxas…” He eyed Sora, letting what happened next be implied: Sora and Ventus had not gone to Twilight Town, after all, so naturally wouldn't be there with Roxas.

“Ah, shit,” Sora swore. Oof; did Jiminy need to talk to him about language, too? These boys were such delinquents!

“Would you believe us if we said we accidentally got lost driving there?” Ventus ventured.

Riku crossed his arms. “If it weren’t a place you supposedly go to once a week, sure. But Roxas said you’ve actually only been visiting every other weekend. On top of that, I talked to some of the others, and they said you actually leave for there more often than that—conveniently on days when I’m not around!” His voice rose a little.

“Well, sorry I don’t tell you every little detail of my life!” Sora bristled.

Jiminy took the growing argument as an opportunity to escape; he had to find one of the other Masters—well, Aqua would be the only one here at the moment, Jiminy figured—and tell them what happened. He had a feeling Sora would tell Riku, but if Sora requested it be kept a secret the silverette surely would oblige even if that weren't the responsible thing to do.

***

It took a while, but eventually Jiminy came across Aqua, who was in one of the smaller meeting rooms conversing with Mickey. Perfect: two Masters notified was better than one!

“Oh, hey, Jiminy!” Mickey greeted as the cricket jumped on the table. “I was just looking for ya earlier! You see, we’re having a meeting, and it’d be great if it could be transcribed. We’re going to resume it as soon as Riku returns; he dashed out when he saw Sora’s GummiShip arriving.” Mickey chuckled, more amused than upset about that.

“Ah, yes, that is what I want to talk to you about,” Jiminy told them. “In fact, it may be better if Riku isn’t here, considering I expect Sora is telling him to keep it a secret right now; the two are currently arguing about it, because Sora and Ventus won’t say where they were.”

“Where they were?” Aqua asked, scrunching her brow in slight befuddlement. “Didn’t Sora and Ven go to Twilight Town?”

Jiminy shook his head. “Unfortunately not. I heard them talking about sneaking off, so I took it upon myself to follow…”

“They snuck off?” Mickey asked. “Where?”

“Well, you’re not going to like it,” Jiminy began.

“Don’t beat around the bush, Cricket. Where did they go?” Aqua demanded. Ah, yes; her overprotectiveness towards Ventus, whom she saw as a younger brother, was only rivaled by Riku's towards Sora. Jiminy wasn’t sure if the latter was due to the dream-eater bond thing or separation anxiety caused by losing each other so often.

“They went to the Underworld to meet with Hades,” Jiminy informed them.

Aqua and Mickey both audibly gasped. “You’re joking!” the latter called in surprise.

“That can’t be true,” Aqua stated firmly.

Jiminy removed his tophat and held it in front of him. “Unfortunately it is the truth. I witnessed it myself. It seems to be a regular occurrence, too.”

“What did they meet about?” Mickey enquired.

“Well…” Jiminy began nervously. “Well, it appears that they are doing favors for Hades.”

“Favors? Why?” Aqua asked, sounding mystified. Which was understandable, considering Ventus was supposedly pure light and Sora had nearly as much too as far as anyone knew. Those two were the last people anyone would expect to be fraternizing with Hades.

“Well, from what I saw, they appear to be procuring drugs from him.”

The two Masters simply stared at Jiminy in clear disbelief.

“Jiminy, you’re talking about Sora and Ventus,” Mickey said. “I seriously doubt that they would be doing drugs, let alone trading favors with the God of the Underworld for such.”

“But it’s true!” Jiminy defended. “I saw it myself! The two spoke to him like friends, then he gave them little vials of something, which they quickly drank. Afterwards, they went from looking fairly strung-out to cheerful and energetic. Then, he gave them some chores to do, including fighting in that tournament he does—which is rigged, as Hades told them to lose certain fights to cheat bets. They ended up staying overnight because of it, which is why they’re late returning.”

“But… but that’s just not possible,” Aqua said again, voice strained.

“Jiminy wouldn’t just make all that up,” Mickey pointed out, sounding calm although there was a touch of underlying upset in his voice.

“Are you sure it was them? It wasn’t Roxas and Vanitas or something?” Aqua asked quietly.

“But of course,” Jiminy said, baffled as to why the bluenette would suggest either of those boys. “Vanitas chose to vanish instead of be redeemed, remember? And the two were talking about pretending to visit Roxas. Surely Roxas wouldn’t be pretending to visit himself.”

“Then what do we do?” Aqua enjoined, wilting. Jiminy had never seen her look so downtrodden; usually she maintained a firm, resolute demeanor when around others.

“Jiminy,” Mickey said, and the cricket turned to him. “Tell me honestly. Do you think they’ve betrayed us and are working for Hades willingly, or are they doing it solely because of the drugs?”

“Well, I can’t be certain, but it sure looked like the drugs were the primary motive behind their actions.”

“So they’re addicts,” Aqua realized. She collected herself and said with conviction, “In that case, we need to talk to them and get them help.”

“Yes, an intervention seems like the best route of action,” Mickey agreed.

“Ow ow ow ow ow!” came a sound from outside. Was that Sora?

Jiminy got his answer a second later when Riku entered the room, holding Sora and Ventus by the ears as he dragged them into the room. He let go and pushed the two forwards. “Tell them. Now,” he asserted.

“What? No!” Sora yelled in protest. “Riku, what part of ‘keep it a secret’ don’t you understand?!”

“This isn’t something I can keep a secret,” the silverette said. Jiminy was proud of the boy; it was a sign of maturity to want to help a friend in this situation even if the friend got mad, in Jiminy’s opinion.

“But Riku—”

“No. They’re going to find out regardless; better now than later.”

“He has a point,” Ventus pointed out shyly, hands behind his back and looking guilty.

“Ven! Whose side are you on!?” Sora asked angrily.

“If it’s about the drugs, we already know,” Aqua told them, aiming for gentle but sounding a little bitter too.

“Drugs?” Ventus asked, clearly confused.

“We don’t do drugs,” Sora stated. Oof. That was a blatant lie, although Jiminy wouldn’t have been able to tell if he didn’t already know—meaning he was practiced. Did Jiminy also have to talk to Sora about the consequences of frequent lying?

Jiminy replied to them. “Boys, I followed you yesterday. I witnessed you procuring drugs from Hades.”

Sora paled, but Ventus surprisingly laughed instead. “Oh, you must have misunderstood then! It wasn’t drugs.”

“No, it’s worse,” Riku practically spat. Jiminy wondered what the boy meant; what could be worse?

“It’s not that bad,” Sora argued with a pout.

“Not that bad?! Sora, if you don’t keep drinking that stuff, you’ll become a wraith! That’s definitely bad!”

“But there are perks too!” Ventus pointed out. “The gold blood is cool.”

“And the immortality,” Sora added.

Riku glared at Sora. “That’s debatable.”

“But it means I’ll be with you forever!”

“Which I did not consent to!”

Sora rolled his eyes. “You did when you became my dream-eater.”

“I didn’t know it had that effect.”

“But you’d have done it even if you did,” Sora said smugly. “Besides, you like the idea of it.”

Riku narrowed his eyes at Sora. “That’s not the point. Do you realize the implications of this? Living forever?”

“Hey, Ven’s lived over a thousand years! If he can do it we can too!”

Ventus responded to that. “Yeah but I don’t remember that. Or even if that’s true; could have been time-travel.”

“Okay, I’m completely lost,” Aqua admitted.

“Yes. Could one of you please explain?” Mickey piped up. “Sora, how about you do so?” Jiminy nodded; a good choice. Riku’s information was second-hand, and Ventus could be difficult to follow—somehow he managed to go off on tangents more frequently than Sora, which Jiminy hadn’t thought possible before experiencing it himself.

“Um…” Sora shifted nervously. “I, er, guess we can’t get out of this huh?” He looked around at the group, all whose expressions clearly agreed with the statement. “Okay. So. Er. Ven and I, we… we kinda…” the rest he said under his breath, so quietly that no one caught it.

“Sora, please speak up,” Aqua requested.

Sora sighed, replying in more detail at a normal volume but speaking faster. “We drank ambrosia, okay? So we’re, like, immortal demigods or whatever. But if we don’t drink it regularly, we get turned into wraiths. So, yeah. We have to make regular trips to Olympus for it, because it’s not allowed to leave Olympus and Hades only gives us a little bit at once.”

Everyone took a moment to process this.

“And Hades is the only one you can get it from?” Mickey asked.

“Yeah, isn’t it the food of the gods?” Aqua noted. “Shouldn’t they all have access to it?”

Sora gave pause to that. Clearly that had not occurred to him.

“We’re idiots,” Ventus declared with a moan. Jiminy was inclined to agree, although he didn’t say so.

“Sora, you’re friends with Zeus, right? I bet he’d be able to get you lots!” Mickey pointed out.

“Oh… yeah, that’s true,” Sora concurred, looking embarrassed.

Aqua sighed. “Next time, please tell us when something like this happens. Please. This stuff with Hades could have been avoided.”

“And what about you, Riku?” Mickey asked. “It sounded like there’s something going on with you, too?”

Riku sighed. “I’ve been doing more research on dream-eaters. Apparently our lifespans are the same as those we’re bonded to, unless we’re killed before that. So if Sora’s immortal, I basically am too.”

No one seemed to know what to say to that, so Jiminy chimed in, realizing something else hadn’t added up. “Ventus, Sora mentioned that—”

“Oh, right, yeah, that’s apparently a thing,” Ventus confirmed, turning bright red. “Hades apparently met me a thousand years ago. So, yeah. Guess I already had something going on there, before my memory loss. Wasn’t ambrosia though, since I’m not a wraith. Now it is.”

Everyone fell into silence for a moment, considering everything, until Mickey broke it with, “So, in summary, we now have two immortal teenagers who need to drink ambrosia to stay human?”

“Nah, we won’t be teenage forever,” Sora pointed out.

Aqua crossed her arms. “Really? Because last I checked, that’s how immortality works: it essentially freezes aging. Human brains keep developing until well into their twenties—so, yes, you two are stuck with teenage brains forever.”

“Three,” Riku corrected. “If a dream eater’s protectee has their aging stopped, so do they.” Jiminy tried not to sigh; he had his work cut out for him, now having to be a conscience for these three for the rest of his life.

There was another period of silence; this time, Jiminy was the one to interrupt it. "So, who’s going to be the one to tell Yen Sid that there’s three immortal teenage keyblade wielders?”

Everyone looked at each other warily, none wanting to be the bearer of such news to the imposing wizard—meaning that task would surely be falling to Jiminy, too, confirmed by how everyone’s eyes eventually fell on him.

This time, Jiminy could not suppress his sigh of resignation.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Someone mentioned in a previous crack fic of mine how they liked the ambrosia theme, and I decided I liked it too. Maybe someday I'll write a prelude to this about Sora and Ventus accidentally drinking it, a sequel with the conversation with Yen Sid, or an expanded version of this where the actual visit to the Underworld is included (I enjoy writing Hades). But for now I want to work on finishing some other fics; I have a few more short ones (some meant to be short, some that were going to be longer originally like this one was) that you may see appearing in the next few days.


End file.
